to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i'm glad i'm so. i mean. i know that i'm sitting seems really really messed up. and we're all very so personally apologize if that. worst cheer for the little thing the white house says of the radio guy and for the tail minestrone they want you to watch what we're about to give you never seen anything like this i'm told. shout i'm abby martin so last night was a state of the union address which i'll get to later but perhaps the most entertaining part of the night was watching c.n.n. frantically try to cover both the address and the unfolding drama of the dorner

manhunt and kneeling following the speech wolf blitzer had this to say. so following some breaking news out of california right now we're going to get back to the president's state of the union address but authorities are now telling c.n.n. that the fugitive expertly smith christopher dorner is deg. and while there still is an official confirmation that he is in fact dead at the mo shocking part of all is how he may have died checking this out in the middle of big bear forest the cabin dorner was allegedly in was set ablaze and left to burn for hours of course at first the speculation was that dorner had set the fire himself as a diversion but then i heard this. ok. we're. going to go. with the plan with the gun on it. like we can't go. anywhere. i think that one parent i don't know.

seven burners the ploy to go forward with the burning orders tonight is here that look the audience is not confirmed yet for half of that but if you ask me seems like the police burn this guy alive you know that clip the confusion here seen the live news feed whoa wait according to c.n.n. they were asked to turn the feeds off long before the fire even started so i guess what the take the police departments of word for it ok so let's go over this one more time the l.a.p.d. is rational response to chris dorner ordering the launch of surveillance drones gunning down two cars on mere suspicion and now what looks to be the burning alive of a suspect in a heavily forested area i guess there's no need for courts any more than now that the l.a.p.d. has taken it upon themselves to summarily execute people by fire hey not a far cry from the obama administration that acts as judge jury and executioner so

let's break that set. so did you happen to watch the state of the union address last night it pains me to say that i did. and never ceases to amaze me what an absolute dog and pony show the political system in this country really is and i don't want to use it barest to watch our representatives act like a bunch of groupies outside of a justin bieber concert i mean look at them they're all swooning getting autographs from obama or you know what he might just be signing off on another kill list right here but seriously though president obama did take the opportunity last night to make some very important declarations starting with afghanistan announcing that thirty four thousand u.s. troops will be coming home and next year the war will for sure be over great news

don't get me wrong i just want the president to be clear that we're definitely pulling all of our troops out from the country by twenty fourteen right. you know on twenty fourteen america's commitment to a unified and sovereign afghanistan will endure but the nature of our commitment will change we're negotiating an agreement with the afghan government the focus is on two missions training and equipping afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos and counterterrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al qaeda and their affiliates training forces ok so in other words keeping troops on the ground beyond twenty fourteen gotcha and what was the other thing counterterrorism efforts are right that sounds specific only not at all and could mean anything from special ops to military contractors to they all but

surprising drones speaking of drones since the drone came won't utter the word just here alone the record order forty fourth i'm sorry four hundred forty seven drone strikes in afghanistan which killed thousands of people as u.s. air force data has revealed in fact a defense news report on army drone purchases indicates that we can expect america's hands i mean unmanned wings to remain in the country well into the future but moving on obama did make a point to talk about his commitment to the world's poor check out. many places people live on little more than a dollar a day so the united states will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades by connecting more people to the global economy by empowering women by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve . and helping communities to feed and power and educate themselves wow what an

admirable declaration one to eliminate global poverty in the next two decades i say not bombing the crap out of other countries with drones is probably a good place to start after of course we deal with the fifty million people living below the poverty line right here at home while the sentiment seems to be full of good intentions i can hope to call into question obama's quote free trade agreements which he claims put the interests of those less fortunate first to their impact can't analyze because all the negotiations are being done under a veil of secrecy but i was thrilled to hear obama the harvard lawyer mr constitutional himself finally talk about the dire state of civil liberties in america today. freedom bow is not just the job of our military alone we must all do our part to make sure our god given rights are protected here at home that includes one of the most fundamental rights of

a democracy the right to vote and vote hopefully enough obama says our voting experience is the biggest threat to civil liberties up the patriot act the n.d.a. not. nope voting lines maybe that's because he supports all these bills that have stripped our most fundamental rights i guess the biggest takeaway from last night's state of the union was a realization i had that obama actually has a really tough job you guys i mean after all it must be a burden to shield millions of people from the truth. so needless to say it's hard to believe all this rhetoric we've been hearing it for the last four years indeed obama put forth a very strong agenda last night but does he have a like minded congress to follow suit parties very own megan lopez was at the state

of the union address asking some hard hitting questions to members on the hill and now she joins me to break it all down nice to have you on the show for the first time a good thing turned right on me so let's talk about drones the issue of the biggest elephant in the room of course obama didn't mention is address let's hear from representative debbie wasserman schultz when you asked her about it let's hear she had to say. that the president and the administration as the president indicated in his speech tonight are very careful to make sure that we observe all the laws that we respect the rights. of members the rights of all americans whether they're here in the united states or crossed. so you know previously when she was asked about the kilis she kind of denied its existence she said i don't even know what you're talking about i mean when we hear her say you know they're going to follow legal parameters and follow human rights and all this stuff when they're using drones i mean it was kind of parody talking points here what did you

take away from that kind of seems like a lot of people are. talking point out of people don't want to talk negatively about the program course overall what i heard from people was that everyone time tends to support the drover the drone program but there's always types of stipulations that they want to tack on it they support the drone program but there needs to be a legal process they support the drone program but congress needs to have oversight they support the drone program but not attacking american citizens that's what i got overall you know a lot of people wanted to say that they support president obama and that they want the troops out and that if that means drone program sure go ahead with that but overall you know when you had peter king who is adamantly for the drone program he actually said it goes by international law that he didn't see a problem with that at all so it's hard to say whether they were parroting talking . points are their personal views but i didn't have very many people saying very negative things about the drone program overall and you did ask about drones and that's good i mean that you did hear some or some criticisms about the americans you know being extra judicially assassinated abroad that is good to hear at least

that people are voicing that criticism let's move on and talk about cyber security though you had a chance to speak to eliot engel and he sits right a little bit of a glimmer of hope putting out there about about the bill and legislation let's take a listen to that. at least warrant the abuse of probable cause you just don't want anyone to be able to willy nilly try to slowing down. private information of anybody i mean we we have a right of privacy and i think that is one of the basic tenets of or of our democracy so here is outlining what we all agree with you know that they need to be a privacy provisions on the legislation that's passed but you know this but did have bipartisan support when it was almost passed through last time what pretenses are proponents of the bill using to pass this it's hard to say at this point i mean really what we're seeing in this is the first time in the most expensive time

expansive speech that we've ever heard from president obama in a state of the union actually bring up cyber legislation and something needs to happen the fact is that what we're finding out this week and over the last month is that the cyber infrastructure of these cyber attacks is not only hurting our national security it's also hurting our our economic infrastructure it's hurting businesses so representative of what i was speaking with him about directly was that something that he had a lot of say in what the department of homeland security taking in seizing up people's laptops or cell phones for days or weeks on end really to get this information from them and he was saying that you know he doesn't believe that that should be the rule that that should be the exception that americans are all we should have a right and reasonable right and an expectation of privacy albeit you know whether it's in your house or on your computer you should be able to keep some things secret absolutely and we'll see what happens that executive order that obama kind of provided the framework for companies to take initiative on that you so much for coming on breaking down and go and getting these answers from people on the hill

really appreciate that megan lopez. so if you like what you see so far go to our facebook page at facebook dot com slash breaking the set and when you're there be sure to do what thousands of already done and give us a like will be. update in our status daily with links to past segments as well as reaching out to you friday isn't what you want to see covered on the show check out behind the scenes photos we've taken breaking news that's reported on the road or just preparing for the show in our studios like this one here so head to our facebook page and check out all that and more now take a break from my preaching but stay tuned to hear about the methods and motives of the f.b.i. and travel in the war on terror next. to. the t.v. . let

me let me i want to know will let me ask you a question. here on this network is what we're having a debate we have our knives out. live. but if you feel the slightest bad staying there again you're in a situation where b. and i don't agree to talk about surveillance me.

looks. good if you've never seen anything like the toughest school. last week the f.b.i. the war did a terrorist attack in oakland california did you hear the man matthew aron allegedly tried to bomb a bank of america in the hope to spark a civil war but like almost every other word terrorist plot you've heard about the last decade and it was just another victim of f.b.i. entrapment man is a former window washer who is suffering from bipolar disorder paranoia and depression for months he was the target of an undercover sting operation where he

was given the resources including the bomb to carry out the attack but unfortunately this is just one example of hundreds of cases of alleged terror plot to be boiled by the f.b.i. in fact at the guise of counterterrorism operations in the post nine eleven world there are more than fifteen thousand f.b.i. informants working around the clock to facilitate this agenda which is a yearly price tag of three billion dollars it's a subject my next guest has exposed in his latest book called the terror factory inside the f.b.i. is manufactured war on terror so here now to talk to me about the methods and motives of entrapment is investigative journalist and author trevor aaronson thank you so much for coming on trevor thanks for having me so you looked at over five hundred cases to write this comprehensive book what were some of the main findings . you know of the more than five hundred cases in that in the decade after nine eleven you know we can say very definitively is that informants were used to

a wide degree you know and in one in two cases an informant was used in some cases an informant did what you would expect he provided some information but in more and more cases such as the one you just talked about in california the informant or the undercover agent plays a really much larger role he becomes a part of the terrorism plot he provides in some cases the idea and in every case the means an opportunity for someone on the fringes of society someone who is aca nominally desperate or mentally ill to move forward in a terrorism that by themselves they would have no capacity to carry forward you know what we can say is there have been examples or real terrorists you know for example came close to buying times square but there are far more examples of these these kind of phantom terrorists these men who say they want to commit an act of violence but on their own have no means of doing so and it's the f.b.i. through these elaborate and expensive sting operations that provides them everything they need and i why i'm going off of the case that i just mentioned what

you just said you know a lot of them are mentally ill people who are kind of being preyed upon by the f.b.i. how many cases would you say this accounts for of someone who's kind of mentally ill and and do you think the f.b.i. is actually singling out mentally ill people. it's hard to quantify specifically because i think in many of these cases there's questions of the defendant's mental fitness but they may not have been formally diagnosed as being mentally ill there are some egregious examples so for example there was a case recently in seattle involving two men who plotted with an informant to attack a military recruiting base the one man had a history of mental problems and the second had what's known as schizoaffective disorder which means yes trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy you know obviously someone like that is very susceptible to. strong willed informant or undercover agent in other cases you know such as the newburgh four which are for men who but it's a bomb synagogues outside the bronx that the lead defendant in that case also had

a history of mental illness in other cases the behavior of the defendants seems to suggest that they're not the most mentally stable but ultimately they they weren't formally diagnosed as having a mental illness i don't know specifically that the f.b.i. targets people who are mentally ill but what i think happens is that through the sting operations they're looking for people who say they want to commit an act of terrorism people who don't have the means on their own or and because they're trolling people on the fringes of communities on the fringes of muslim communities they're finding people who you know tend to be mentally ill whether diagnosed or not and these are the people who are more susceptible to a strong willed informant undercover agent pushing them along in a plot to bomb a skyscraper or yeah all the more and this is right in the means and all the logistics to do so i mean i can't help but think of the same tactics that terrorist organizations use to recruit suicide bombers i mean preying upon the most vulnerable and poorest to carry out these attacks i mean is it

a moral thing for taxpayers to be sponsoring or. i think what i what i hope my book exposes and what i think few americans realize is that the people to really swept up in these terrorism sting operations are not the people who are likely to commit acts of terrorism and in fact i think in most cases they are so incompetent and such but soon that if a real terrorist organization was interested in recruiting people they wouldn't be looking at these these guys first are drawn to these to sting operations and you know it's clear from the evidence needs cases that the men have capacity for only minor crimes at best yet through the sting operations they're able to acquire weapons that even a sophisticated criminal organization would have a difficulty in obtaining and there has yet to be a case where the f.b.i.'s afraid that people like this will meet a real terrorist operative and that terrorists optical provide them with the means to carry out an attack and i think it's important note that there has yet to. the that case there is yet to be that total someone who has no capacity on his own who turns a corner. and not all part of provides him with the means and opportunity it's only

the f.b.i. that's providing that means absolutely and i think you wrote also in your book at how sometimes the salaries are one hundred thousand dollars and her case i mean months and months of working on these cases and betting themselves and and mosques i love that one case how it backfired someone was that overzealous that the informant in the mosque actually reported him to the f.b.i. saying there's this guy who's trying to rally and it's just such an absurd situation i mean when you look at things like that the synagogue bombing the christmas tree bomber all of these terrorist attacks mostly involve entrapment and they're dangerous can consistently are merging it's almost to remind us that terrorism is this perpetual threat almost becoming background noise in our society yet the probability of someone actually dying in a terrorist attack in this country is less than dying of accidental suffocation in bed so why is there so many people working to manufacture a threat that simply doesn't exist you have the right you know in the last decade and a decade after nine eleven more people were killed by a lone wolf or

a lone gunman for example and you know lone wolf terrorist with al qaeda sympathies but what i think this ultimately is really a bureaucratic people i think you know the f.b.i. receives three billion dollars every year for counterterrorism it's the largest part of its budget more money than it receives for organized crime and financial fraud and it can't really go back to the public and go back to congress and say look we spent your three billion dollars and we didn't find any terrorists you know terrorism sting operations provide a very convenient back into some for the f.b.i. to say look at us we're keeping you safe protecting the homeland from terrorists but ultimately the net effect is that it exaggerates the threat of islamic terrorism within the united states i mean that i don't make the case that there is no threat of islamic terrorism there have been capable terrorists but there have only been a handful since nine eleven through these sting operations we've actually turned these men into the for. men and on the fringes and the terrorists and today there's been more up more than one hundred fifty defendants like that people who espouse violence who said odious things things that i think it's important to point out are

protected by the first amendment but ultimately lacks the ability to carry out any sort of terrorist attack and the f.b.i. through these sting operations provided the means and opportunity because from the top down there is a huge amount of pressure to build terrorism cases and the sting operations are about a very convenient mechanism for the f.b.i. to show it's tough on terrorism trevor i think you hit on the head of what it's almost like you can't expect these giant bureaucratic agencies to be scaled back at the d.h. as all of these counterterrorism initiatives i mean you know it's one thing to build all these giant departments after nine eleven and it's another thing to say you know what the threat isn't there let's scale it all back let's take away the money in the jobs but you know i can't help but question the media why isn't the media questioning these elements that you bring up on so listen to these so obviously in these cases i mean they just kind of parrot this these threats they parrot the establishment line about this thread about this story that attacks. you

know i think in general that the media have battles this effect where you know in any crime story the law enforcement has a kind of unique ability to control the narrative at the outset you know most of the information about any crime story in the first day or two comes or comes from law enforcement and it takes a while for the media to get a fuller picture of what's going on and i think that's even more the case in terrorism cases where the media has been willing to go along with the government's labels to describe people as terrorists even though they had no connections to al qaeda or any terrorist organization it was actually an f.b.i. informant or our undercover agent who was that connection but i think we're seeing a slow shift away from this you know for example a recent case in new york involved a man named was a novice who plotted with an undercover agent to bomb the federal reserve building in new york. no means the f.b.i. provided everything the transportation the cell phone he used to trigger the device and expect it to blow up and if it ever got to that story you know for the first

time that i've ever seen it the new york times had a very media explanation of the criticism of these cases so i think it's taken a long time for the media to realize that these cases are all that they seem to be but certainly even today there isn't the rest of criticism but i think the f.b.i. certainly deserves for you know basically chasing people who have no capacity no means for significant crime and turning them into terrorists really absolutely and since they're mentally kind of and a lot of cases they can't really they always plead guilty in court and it's kind of like case closed trevor out of time thank you so much extremely important topic great book trevor aaronson author of the terror factory. less than a year since the controversial cyber bills this cyber intelligence sharing and protection act stalled in congress the rallying cries of an imminent cyber pearl

harbor have not subsided and at this year's state of the union obama made a point of the high priority the governor will be playing on cyber legislation check it out. and not look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy and that's why earlier today i signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing and developing standards to protect our national security our jobs and our privacy of them but now now congress must act as well by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks. so obama signed an executive order providing the framework for the government to work with private intelligence firms and suggesting standards for companies to follow in regards to cyber protection and although i agree that

a good cyber defense is necessary i can't help but wonder why the us has helped to provide a blueprint for cyber terrorism by launching things like stocks net and flame on other countries infrastructure but i digress the solutions are less than internet savvy politicians are proposing to secure the internet have dangerous implications that go far beyond internet security cisco would grant private companies intelligence agencies and homeland security a way to freely share private user information regarding anything they deem a quote cyber threat the language in the bill so vague it states that private information may be shared notwithstanding any other provision of law but hold on any other provision of law meaning a little something called the fourth amendment or the precedent set by u.s. versus war shock or the u.s. sixth circuit court of appeals ruled that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his emails and that unwarranted searches of

emails is a violation of the fourth amendment look guys i agree that there is a cyber threat of course but it's not coming from china or al-qaeda the only cyber threat this nation faces is the government passing legislation that kills online privacy and net neutrality one sort of for all good thing it's not too late to call your congressman and tell them to vote against this legislation look at work before with and it can work again take a stand and tell the powers that be there online rights are not negotiable.

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